Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-29
In GOTHAM.
High Life end Low life In New York.
Tracing Relation Between the
neral and Physieais
More Crime Among the Poor Tran the
R.ch-Because the Poor Drink Rum
In Grog shops,
Boston Globe.

wise, between the moral anu pDyslCdI
conditions existing in communities.
For instance, let Us take New York of
to-day.
What do we find? A condition Of moral
itv absolutely unprecedented, a condition
of physical upsetment which Is g text Tor
universal complaint from one end of the
town to the other. Absurd as it is in facE,
for the sake of argument, we will conceoe
that our city government is the fountain
from which flow streams of Influence, OF
power, of example. A fountain which is
filed with impuTity, into which have been
for many years emptied the mean, tIie
poor, the ambitious, the avariclous, the
corrupt element which have risen ike
the scum frcE the bottom OF citizenship
to the top. Continuing the assumption
for the sake OF argument and Illustration,
what could have been expected from q
fountain so corrupt, different from that
which we find along the line of crime and
of general infelicitCus existence. AllhiS-
tory shows that as nations grow in power
they grow in wealth, and as they grow in
wealth they lapse into habits of luxury,
effeminsncy, disregard Of principle, end
indulgence in criminalitie5 crest and
DGCduSuCS Vi ILLS IL IuS
certain precursor of ultimate ruin. Re-
curing TO fact aud leaving out asaump
ton, we find that corruption has ruled in
our places of authority for yeara, &c such
an extent that the interference of an out
rsged press has been invoked, the courts
have been appealed to, and bolts and bars
have been utilized to separate men once
high in Office from those over whom they
WickedIy dominated.
And society?
Still disregsrding assumption and ad-
herring TO fact, it may be truthfully as
serted that never has New York society
been so weak, so vscillsting, 50 effemiD-
ate, so frivolous, SO cepricious, so vain,
so sickeningly silly, rs it is to-day, tRe
cap and elm x of q decade of idiocy.
And wicked?
Yes. Those who have dared to be
wicked are wicked, and indeed sill
vSin, frivolous creatures are wicked,
Judged by a lofty standard, but
use the term 'fWicked" here as applicable
to those who commit heinou5 and punish
able crimes, 10 those who thWart the
lower laws, who steal, who murder, who
commit offences SO gross that even
blunted consciences are aroused TO puni-
tive action.
New York, as l have repeatedly told
you, is divided into two classes only-the
rich and the poor.
We find here SO few of what are ordi-
narilY known as the middllGg class, by
which term are indicated men and women
who toll and work for little more than
their absolute necessities, who live in
comfort without show, asking favoTs from
none, independent in thought, fearless in
action and with sufficient laid by TO meet
the day of cloud and storm. We have SO
few OF that grade of men in this city that
they are not worth speaking Of as between
the two great distinctions Of rich and
poor, the rich being mea who have at
tanned success in business, or occupation
of whatever nature, the poor being those
who are literally dependent upon others
for employment inadequately remuners-
tive, and generally Of nature from
which true manhood necessarily shriDks
The crimes Of the very rich sud the
crimes of the very poor spring from a
common nature. There are not as many
murders among the rich as among the
poor.
Why?
Because the source of crime, brutal
in its type, is drunkenness, drunkenness
produced by 0yer-indulgence in infAm-
mEtory liquors. There are era les of
drunkenness. All drunkerds are ebhor-
rent, but sl are not violent, and it is
rare that the ricn man, drunk from Chsm-
pagne, rolls or staggers Or violently
pushes through the streets, insulting his
fellows, maltreating men, women, chill
dren, horses, ssssulting the police or
indulging in deeds of violence upon the
Urn 10 in n nh ~
the house Of his friend, in the gilded res
taursnt, in his own apartments. On the
other hand, the drunkenness OF the poor
is SIS rule born of excessive drinking
in g corner grocery, in some lower haunt
of vice, in series OF convenient gilmilIs,
whence the poor man can be elected
as soon as he is full or his money gone,
whence he can be thrown upon the side
walk and ihauled unceremonlously to the
nearest statiop house by passing police
man. 1t is very different thing TO get
drunk in 8 club house, or in your own
apartments, and TO be put tenderly snd
carefully into bed by your valet. or your
friend, from what il is to get drunk in g
gin mill on corner, to be kicked into a
street ct midnight, to become involved in
brawl with some ilsulted Essser, and
then, after brutal beating, to be hauled to
station house, pitched into cell with 8
stone for pillow-dirty, unkempt, wal-
lowing in his own desructior-so be
aroused the following morning and taken,
with q score Of fello -unfortunstes, be-
fore sleepy and careless magistrate.
Some difference there.
NEW YORK SOCIETY, HIGH AND Low,
is in condition of ferment abnormal,
unique. What do you fiod our rich men
doing? They work. Many of them work
more In dsY than the humblest dirt
singer in their employ. They bring to
bear intelligence, study, research,
thought, patience, and evolve from tie
crucible Of their machination enterprises
in the interest of their fellow men.
But thenp
But then they start, with many an hon.
orable exception, upon career abso-
lutely dnbridled in Its license, with
boundless scope affecting men, women,
customs, defylng laws of God and man,
breaking down the barriers of decency,
utterly regardless Of the teachings of the
Bible, the suggestions of their own COZ
science, the example of their fathers.
And the women?
Look at them.